Finding the Peril in Pedicure

My sister is in town from Winnipeg so I did something I rarely do ... I took a day off writing and did "girly" stuff. We shopped, lunched and got pedicures.

As easy as it was to leave the computer at home, my thoughts are never far from murder :) As we sat having our feet massaged and toenails painted, I began thinking about paraffin wax. If you've never received a paraffin wax treatment when getting a pedicure, it's divine. A little warm wax leaves those previously rough digits soft as a baby's bottom.

However, I was sitting there wondering about a woman receiving the same wax treatment on her hands while getting a manicure.

What if she just shot someone before showing up for her manicure?
Would the gun shot residue be sloughed into the wax when it's taken off her hands?
Could a detective get a warrant for the old wax to check it for GSR?

Even though my mind didn't officially take a vacation day, the girl day with my sister was wonderful.

As for the GSR question, I'm going to do some checking with my sources and I'll get back to you. In the meantime tell me, does your mind wonder to murder?

Filling up the well

ONE -- log cabin in the woods
Plus
TWO -- walks on the beach, equals
THREE -- different ways to kill a man.

Ahhh the beauty of getting back to basics.

Staring at the curling red bark of the arbutus trees outside my cottage window helped to peel away the clutter in my mind. I've returned home anxious to dive back into book two.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to get away from my everyday busy life to wind down and clear my head. Finally, I can hear that little voice inside my head that's prodding me to write. Sometimes her whisper gets drowned out by the dull roar of daily life.

Many times I find I need a mini vacation to bring myself into focus and a few days away is out of the question. In those cases, even a bubble bath will do. How do you escape when life gets so busy you can't hear your inner voice speak?

Away

I leave this weekend for Vancouver Island and, hopefully, some relaxing writing moments. I'll be gone a few days and look forward to blogging about it on my return.

Odds and Ends

This has been a week of research.
I've done a fair bit of writing on Book 2 but it's been a stop and start kind of thing because of all the facts I've been collecting.
While in research mode I often pick up odds and ends. Little facts that serve no useful purpose for the story but they sit there in my research file ready to be dragged out, just in case.

Here are my odds and ends from this week:

- Even pandas can use arificial limbs

- There's a Seattle law that says goldfish can ride the city buses in bowls.

- Charlie Chaplin died in Vevey, Switzerland

- The oldest house in Seattle is The Ward House and it was built in 1882

- A knife wound to the spleen will bleed out quicker than a knife wound to the kidney

- The headquarters of Amazon.com is an old military hospital that is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a nurse

- You can try and hide the tofu but your kids will always pick it out.

That last one didn't require cracking any books or research on the net :)

So in your comings in and your goings out, have you managed to find any interesting tidbits this week?